Government officials have been vexed for quite some time now that they can’t surveil communications that use end-to-end encryption. Never mind that to crack encrypted platforms open for one spy would mean to open them up for all spies. Just being able to roll WhatsApp, Telegram and iMessage into the Pentagon’s bulk surveillance programs is good enough for them, thanks. Worrying about what that might mean to the intelligence gathering capabilities of their adversaries is apparently “not in their department.”
After the devastating attacks in Paris last Friday, U.S. officials wasted no time in using fear to insist that messaging apps using end-to-end encryption be “backdoored” for surveillance access, and rolled into the Pentagon’s bulk surveillance programs.
The internet, rather than treating the officials like children who want to smash the family piggy bank to collect copper pennies, has decided to argue with them.